Dana White: The UFC Is Working On a GSP vs. Nate Diaz Fight

What better way to bring back two dormant MMA stars than having Georges St-Pierre and Nate Diaz square off in the UFC octagon?

UFC president Dana White was on the UFC Unfiltered podcast this week, and confirmed that the company was working on two major fights to turn UFC 227 event in Los Angeles in August into a supercard. First he was asked about the rumors of a Luke Rockhold vs. Alexander Gustafsson fight, and then about the possibility of GSP facing off against Nate Diaz.

“It is true and they would fight at 155-pounds,” White said regarding St-Pierre vs Diaz.

“There are rumours, what did I see? That we were doing Gustafsson and Rockhold, that is true, but that’s not for the interim title, that’s false. It might be LA, I’m targeting LA.”

Cody Garbrandt vs. T.J. Dillashaw is already scheduled to be the main event of UFC 227, which will take place at the Staples Center on August 4. It’s currently the only announced fight, but White is obviously working hard to turn into a blockbuster summer event for fight fans.

Nate Diaz hasn’t fought since his memorable pair of bouts with Conor McGregor in 2016, winning the first one and losing the second. He has said repeatedly that he would only return for a big money fight, and a matchup against GSP definitely qualifies. St-Pierre returned to the UFC in November 2017 after a four-year absence, winning the Middleweight championship by beating Michael Bisping. He has since vacated that title, when he was diagnosed with colitis and the future of his career was uncertain.

St-Pierre is one of the UFC’s true pay-per-view stars, regularly selling double the amount of PPVs that the standard roster attracts. If he’s healthy enough to fight, the UFC will definitely book him as soon as possible. The one odd thing is that White said the fight would take place at 155-pounds. St-Pierre has never fought at that weight, and was always considered one of the bigger welterweights (170 pounds). His last fight was at middleweight (185 pounds), so cutting 30 pounds to make lightweight could be out of the question for the Canadian icon.